Quick Home Improvements Tips For Older Properties

Older homes have challenges when significant work is required to modernize the properties dramatically. Once you start ripping down walls and lifting floors, you never know what you might find.

You can be assured that doing a significant refit in an older property will be expensive, so if this is for you, triple your renovation budget before you remove the first brick!

Property Values Remain Strong

Property as an asset class has outperformed nearly all other assets with double, triple, or more growth. For example, residential property value in France is similar to price value growth in other industrialized nations. OECD Stat shows regions in France with increases above average, and some are up as high as 8.8% in one quarter.

If your property is a few decades past its best, this property blog post will let you know what you can do to improve its look and use without unnecessary expense.

Kitchen

Kitchens are high-traffic zones. Over time even with regular cleaning, kitchen features, and appliances wear down.

An attractive kitchen can be what sells a home. Even with a property for sale in the South of France, it will sell faster and for a higher price when it features an attractive kitchen.

Replacing a kitchen can put a massive dent in your property refit budget, but it’s the area of the home that is more likely nearly pay for itself, i.e., up to 72%.

Even in older homes, you can get away with doing significant work like ripping everything out, returning it to the frame, and starting over. This action is not wrong, but before you start your kitchen renovation, ensure you have a contingency fund to cope with unexpected finds, for example, non-compliant wiring, switches, and plumbing.

If you want to do a few quick upgrades to your kitchen, consider the following:

• Upgrading faucets and light fixtures
• Adding additional storage i.e., use wall height
• Refinishing cabinets by replacing the doors, and drawers
• Add an island
• Paint everything – ceiling, walls

Bathroom

Bathrooms in older homes are smaller than in modern homes. So if your bathroom is small but has good light, all you need to do to give it a facelift without spending much money is first focusing on the floor plan. What can you do to improve the layout?

The bathroom is another room that will pay for itself as it is a high-use room.

First, get some assistance from bathroom experts. Then prepare a budget that works for you.

At a minimum, consider one or more of the following tasks to give your bathroom a refresh:

• Painting, Retiling
• New toilet, shower, tub, or sink
• New lights, shades and switches
• More storage

Bathrooms also add value to homes. If you have space, you can even consider constructing a new bathroom, for example, an ensuite.

Rest Of The House

Bring in someone not used to being in your home and ask for their feedback.

What space is not being used efficiently? Have you got extra bedrooms that are never or seldom used? A basement or attic, perhaps. Changing the use of empty rooms will make your home more liveable and more appealing to prospective homebuyers, should you want to move on.

The good news is you will not need to spend a fortune to add more floor space to your existing home. With proper planning, you can easily convert the vacant area of your house into a playroom, home office, home gym, guest bedroom, study, etc.

Interior Design

Changing the furnishings, walls, and floor coverings can completely transform a room. It’s a reason real estate agents will advise a seller to get their property staged for sale.

However, you don’t need to live in a show home, so make it liveable according to your taste and style. If you list your home for sale, take everything out, clean and paint everything in neutral fresh colors and then get in an interior designer or leave it empty ready for the staging furniture and features.

Outdoors

Clean the exterior of your home and paint the surfaces as required.

You can also increase your property value by making your outdoor space more functional. The easiest way of doing so would be by constructing a patio or deck. Or, if you already have one, give it a facelift by water blasting or pressure washing to clean it and then restain or paint it.

Add some landscaping to make use of the front and rear gardens. Include paths, trees, grass, and shrubs. If you doubt what to do, get advice from a landscaping gardener.

Replace or repair broken, defective, or old everything.

Final Words

Older homes need attention, too, and with it, they can be more liveable and beautiful to prospective homebuyers. Even small rooms can be repurposed. Plus, refurbished bathrooms and kitchens are where you start your renovation project as they are the most frequented, and they’ll need the lion’s share of your renovation budget.